DIY: Handmade Valentine Card Tutorial

I’ve always been pretty crafty. As a kid I despised the little perforated cards that you wrote on and tore apart. Granted they could have the Smurfs on them but even as a child I understood that they were impersonal. Give me construction paper and paper doilies anyday, please.

Perhaps it has been a while since you handmade a card for your Valentine. And maybe your Valentine isn’t the kind of person who will notice that their card isn’t store-bought. But you know who will know? You!

Because I love the “bee mine” sentiments seen on heart shaped boxes of chocolate I decided to roll with it when making my Valentine a fun card. The good news is all you really need are a few items, plus a printer. Let’s go over the list, shall we?

For this project you will need:

Pre-made cards and envelopes (mine are 4×6 folded and I purchased them from Michael’s)

Print your honeycomb heart onto the front side of your card. The printable is already set up to print onto a 4×6 folding card.

Print the interior of your card. The inside file are set up as was needed to use on my printer. I’m not sure if this way is the standard, but you may need to test and see if the files will print correctly for you. It may turn out that you need to flip one or both of the files around.

Next, print your honey bee onto card-stock If your card-stock is kind of flimsy, as mine was, glue your bee onto another piece prior to cutting. This will make the bee sturdier.

Take your time and cut the be shape out with scissors.

Take your wire and roll around the tips of your pliers to form curly shapes. As you can see, it takes some practice. Cut a length and feel free to roll up both ends and use the end that comes out best.

You can use jewelry wire, or bust out the galvanized wire from the tool box as I did. Either type will work just fine for this project.

Trim the excess off of your wire and tape them onto the backside of your bee. If you bend them as you see here, they make a cute heart shape!

Attach your bee to the honeycomb heart on the front of the card. I used foam mounting tape so that my bee sits above the paper, but you can also glue him down if that is what you have on hand. As a side note, you would be surprised at how handy foam mounting tape will come in when getting crafty!

Say something sweet and loving and tuck this baby into an envelope and you are finished!

But wait!!! What if you want to make a card with a little less effort? I’ve got you covered there, too!

Head on over to the Graphic’s Fairy and search for “Valentine”. Here you will have a whole slew of vintage card designs to choose from. Either print directly onto your card or print, cut out and place using foam mounting tape. Adorn with a little glitter and glue to make it pop!

And if this is your first visit to the Graphic’s Fairy – wait until you have a good couple of hours to work on this because I promise you are going to kill some serious time over there!

Allison

A crafter since her earliest years, Allison spends a little time every day making something. She crafts, sews, paints, glues things onto other things, and is a firm believer that a life spent creating is a life worth living. Visit Allison's blog, Dream {a Little} BIGGER.